Bills

Your bill, line by line

A Portuguese electricity bill from September 2023, redrawn in our own colours. Everything below is explained from it.

Cliente

Maria Exemplo

Fatura

FT2023 ······

N.º de Cliente

000 000 000

Data da fatura

15 set 2023

Total a pagar35,75 €Data limite de pagamento9 out 2023

Leituras

Período	Horário	Anterior	Atual	Consumo
14 ago – 13 set	Vazio	1781	1813	32 kWh
14 ago – 13 set	Ponta	2526	2553	27 kWh
14 ago – 13 set	Cheias	4535	4596	61 kWh
Total				120 kWh

Detalhe de fatura

Energia	120 kWh × 0,192 €/kWh	23,04 €
Potência contratada	31 dias × 0,2148 €/dia	6,66 €
Desconto	2% · débito direto e fatura eletrónica	−0,60 €
Eletricidade		29,10 €

Redes e encargos: 3,18 € (incluído acima)

Taxas e impostos	DGEG 0,07 · IEC 0,12 · IVA 3,44	3,63 €
Contribuição Audiovisual	2,85 € + IVA 6%	3,02 €
Total a pagar		35,75 €

Based on a real bill from September 2023, with personal data removed. Prices, levies and VAT change over time. Use this to understand the structure, not as a current price list.

The first lesson

Why does the bill show three different consumptions?

The meter measures electricity across three periods of the day. But this household's contract is single-rate, so the three are added together and all billed at the same price.

Vazio32kWh
Ponta27kWh
Cheias61kWh
The meter counts them separately.

Total120kWh

120 kWh × €0.192/kWh€23.04

Only on a single-rate tariff: on two-rate or three-rate, each period has its own price.

Three readings, one price. It is not an error at all: it is the contract.

What you are paying for

The €35.75 on this bill is not all electricity.

Only a little over half the total is the energy the household used. The rest is power, taxes and a levy that is not electricity at all.

Total to pay€35.75

Energy€22.57The 120 kWh actually used.63%
Power€6.53Fixed, per day. Nothing to do with usage.18%
Taxes and levies€3.63DGEG, IEC and the VAT on all of it.10%
Broadcasting levy€3.02A fixed charge, whichever supplier you are with.9%

Network access tariffs (€3.18 on this bill) are not a separate line. They sit inside the energy and power figures above.

Contracted power

Are you paying for power you never use?

Contracted power does not define how much electricity you may consume, but how much you may consume simultaneously.

It is a fixed cost charged every day of the year, so a contracted power above what the household requires represents an additional charge in every month, even with low consumption.

5.75kVAin this household

All running at once?

Oven
Induction hob
Washing machine
Air conditioning

Almost never.

Tariffs

Single-rate, two-period or three-period?

These are not quality levels. They are different ways of counting the hours of the day.

These are the daily-cycle periods for mainland Portugal, the simpler of the two cycles, because the hours are the same on every day of the week. Off-peak is always the night: 22:00 to 08:00.

Simples
One price, at any hour.
All year
Single price
00:00–24:00
Bi-horária
Two prices: off-peak and the rest.
All year
Off-peak
22:00–08:00
Non-off-peak
08:00–22:00
Tri-horária
Three prices: off-peak, standard and peak.
Winter legal time
Off-peak
22:00–08:00
Mid-peak
08:00–08:30 · 10:30–18:00 · 20:30–22:00
Peak
08:30–10:30 · 18:00–20:30
Summer legal time
Off-peak
22:00–08:00
Mid-peak
08:00–10:30 · 13:00–19:30 · 21:00–22:00
Peak
10:30–13:00 · 19:30–21:00

There is also a weekly cycle, where the hours change on Saturdays and Sundays. The Azores and Madeira have different periods. Your bill or your supplier will tell you which cycle your contract uses.

Source: Períodos horários na energia elétrica em Portugal (ERSE)

In this household, 61 of the 120 kWh were used in mid-peak hours and only 32 off-peak. Would switching tariff pay off? It depends on each home.

What comes next

You can read the bill. Now what?

Understanding the bill is half of it. The other half is knowing whether the contract behind it still suits you, and that depends on your numbers, not this example's.

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